This is an invitation to explore the experience of the present moment in all its gory glory. You can do this practice sitting, standing, upside down or whatever way you find the present moment. A 12-Minute Meditation to Give Gratitude for Your Body read more Stephanie Domet, Elaine Smookler, Shauna Shapiro, Barry Boyce, Gina Rollo White, and Georgina Miranda October 25, 2022 Mindful Staff September 21, 2022 Gina Rollo White October 19, 2022
As you go about your day, know that you can always find refuge in your breathing and most emotions can be made more workable by labeling them. Excerpt adapted from The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook by Kristin Neff and Chris Germer. Audio: © Christopher Germer & Kristin Neff. Mindful Self-Compassion. June 2017. All rights reserved.
Awake in the Wild: Why sing ‘America the Beautiful,’ from your couch? Here are Mark Coleman’s tips for getting out and enjoying those for spacious skies, purple mountains and fruited plains. The Folly of the Weather Forecast: It might be sunny. It might rain. Either way, Pico Iyer won’t be checking the forecast. Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers: No celebration is without its flaws, but this is not a cause for grief explains Leonard Koren, in his piece about the beauty of imperfection....
NBC News anchor Ann Curry started the ball rolling by asking people to “imagine what would happen if all of us committed to 20 acts of kindness to honor each child lost in Newtown.” Want to see what people have done? Check out Twitter #20Acts, #26Acts, or #26ActsOfKindness. Acts have included everything from giving someone a hug or kind word to topping up someone’s parking meter to baking cookies for a beloved teacher and even paying off a stranger’s layaway bill....
Just yesterday, I’d spoken with him (read: snapped at him) about screen time. Today, an argument began. Again. He felt angry. I felt frustrated. We both felt misunderstood. Why do we zoom in on the things about our children that concern us more than the things that delight us? Why do we find it so hard to resist the urge to criticize, nag, and worry? Blame it on our brains....
The documentary was created to “inspire others facing similar challenges, while pushing to accelerate the pace of cancer research,” a rep for the late actor told US Weekly. At one point, while waiting for test results, Whitfield and his wife, Vashti, went and got matching tattoos on their arms that read “Be Here Now.” “It was our way of saying that whatever happened, we would live in the moment,” said Vashti in a MailOnline interview....
In this interview with Stephanie Jelley, co-founder of the The Center, Jelley says the program is “about making better choices, not just meditation. It’s about learning how to be in any situation and make the right choice.” Newark is still one of America’s most troubled communities. According to Newark police crime statistics, the community is affected by cycles of violence, addiction and poverty, though it has made improvements since 1996–the year Time Magazine declared Newark the most dangerous city in America....
Do you remember your earliest encounter with yoga or mindfulness? Around 1999, I took my first yoga class, and I didn’t like it. My mind didn’t stop moving—it just kept accelerating through my worries, my to-do list. I felt that slowing down with yoga would be detrimental to my performance. You were more comfortable with hard work? My parents—my dad, a retired police lieutenant, in particular—instilled in me a drive for hard work....
As participants trickle in, Geller turns on pan flute music. After some instruction in seated meditation and body scan and when these tools could be used, the session ends an hour later. For most of us, that might sound like a hefty dose of meditation at the workplace, if a bit awkward, music-wise. But for Gelles, it was problematic. For one thing there was little mention of becoming aware of the coming and going of sensations or any discussion of decreasing emotional reactivity....
I am often approached by people who have developed a mindfulness-based or contemplative program and want me to help them prove its efficacy. These conversations both hearten and dismay me. I’m heartened by the inspiration to help children and the ambition to build an evidence-based program. And I’m also discouraged by the lack of wherewithal to do the necessary research, both in terms of financial resources and the knowledge needed for the developer/researcher partnership to work....
Mindfulness meditation-oriented clinicians, researchers, and educators are invited to presented their research findings, clinical topics, and symposia, along with training institutes that are integral to the development of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and other mindfulness-based interventions. More information on the conference will be available in fall 2012. For submission guidelines, click here. 07/17/12 [photo © flickr.com/F.D. Richards]
It takes Cookie some time to get into his cookie-based advice, but it’s amazing how well “Eat the cookie” works as an life-affirming statement. It’s not the first time Cookie has taken to life coaching. In the past few years on Sesame Street, Cookie has discussed his precarious relationship to the delicious baked goods and teaches kids how to develop habits of self control. Have a cookie-related problem? You might want to take a look at our mindful eating practice....
The more I talk to people about their relationship to their tech, the greater sense of belonging I feel. For most people, every time they see someone reach for their phone there’s a bell that goes off in the mind that creates an urge to grab their phone. Every time they’re slowing down or waiting anywhere, the idea or urge to check the phone arises. Like an addiction, I know this is unhealthy and yet with all my mindfulness and with all the techniques out there, I struggle with this too....
“Winston has been practicing mindfulness meditation for more than 20 years, and when she began it was fairly unknown in this country. But today secular mindfulness meditation is taught to executives, war veterans and schoolchildren; it is used in prisons and hospitals, and is written about in women’s magazines. Given the pace of the world and the torrent of information we face each day, the need for meditation is no surprise....
Two meditation experts weigh in on the question of how mindfulness can be achieved: Sharon Salzberg, author of Real Happiness, and clinical psychologist Donna Rockwell. They discuss what mindfulness is and how the techniques can be applied to everyday life. When Rockwell demonstrates two breathing practices, the whole audience seems to be participating: eyes shut, backs straight, sitting in silence. The Mindful Life Project, founded by JG Larochette, is a non-profit that brings meditation, yoga, and the arts to 3,000 students in 6 schools in the Bay area....
You’re Already Awesome—Just Get Out of Your Own Way So what’s the difference between a fairy tale and a war story? The fairy tale begins: Once upon a time. A war story starts: No shit, there I was barreling down this mountain bike descent near Salida, Colorado. It was one of those descents that is a whole lot of descent and not a lot of trail, so I was really focussing on staying on the trail....
Recent evidence suggests that a promising approach is to complement psychological counseling with additional activities that are not too taxing for clients but yield high results. In our own research, we have zeroed in on one such activity: the practice of gratitude. Indeed, many studies over the past decade have found that people who consciously count their blessings tend to be happier and less depressed. We set out to address these questions in a recent research study involving nearly 300 adults, mostly college students, who were seeking mental health counseling at a university....
And because social media is the highly palatable food of the internet, I was indulging all day every day. Then I happened across an app called one sec—take a deep breath. Yes, as a matter of fact, I did encounter one sec on one of my social laps—on Twitter, I think. I knew my social media indulgence was out of hand, and I clearly needed help getting on top of it....
